Media Group International

2023, 5 November,
18.58 London time

Uber Balloon takes off today to the skies for the first time in Türkiye, Cappadocia. Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic, 100 rides will be free for Uber users. It’s one of the most unique rides to be launched in the Uber app ever, adding a little Uber magic and making a true bucket-list experience available at the tap of a button.

Hot air balloons are Uber’s latest step in the company’s push to expand from taxis and ride-hailing into wider travel and tourism.

App users can pay €150 to reserve one of 20 places on a 1.5-hour sunrise flight 3,000 feet over Turkey’s touristic Cappadocia region. The area is a major tourist attraction in Turkey, with around 10% of the country’s 44.6 million foreign visitors in 2022 staying there, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The balloon rides are a part of the company’s new international travel options, including Tuk-Tuks in India, seasonal boat services in Greece and flight bookings in the UK.

📷: Uber Technologies

2023, July 25
6.30 pm London time

Rolex and Patek prices are going to keep falling, analysts say.

Prices for pre-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches will keep falling thanks to high supply, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley and WatchCharts.

Total supply on the secondhand market is starting to decline but overall inventory levels remain elevated, they said. After a surge in 2021, prices for the most in-demand timepieces have fallen sharply on the secondary market amid economic worries and the crash in cryptocurrencies.

2023, July 25
8 pm London time

It’s rare for corporate brands to become so intertwined with everyday conversation that they become verbs. It’s rarer still for the owner of such a brand to announce plans to intentionally destroy it.⁣
⁣
On Sunday, in the middle of a quiet summer weekend, Elon Musk decreed that Twitter’s product name would be changed to “X,” and that he is getting rid of the bird logo and all the associated words, including “tweet.” Musk’s move wiped out anywhere between $4 billion and $20 billion in value, according to analysts and brand agencies.⁣
⁣
“It took 15-plus years to earn that much equity worldwide, so losing Twitter as a brand name is a significant financial hit,” said Steve Susi, director of brand communication at Siegel & Gale.
⁣
📷: Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

2023, July 25
6.30 pm London time

Rolex and Patek prices are going to keep falling, analysts say.

Prices for pre-owned Rolex, Patek Philippe and Audemars Piguet watches will keep falling thanks to high supply, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley and WatchCharts.

Total supply on the secondhand market is starting to decline but overall inventory levels remain elevated, they said. After a surge in 2021, prices for the most in-demand timepieces have fallen sharply on the secondary market amid economic worries and the crash in cryptocurrencies.

📷: Getty Images

2023, July 25
6.26 pm London time

Selena Gomez's makeup brand is breaking the bank.

Rare Beauty has surged in popularity since its debut less than three years ago, despite a fallout at many celebrity-backed cosmetic lines.
The company has succeeded in the $250 billion global beauty industry by creating simple, moderately priced makeup and leveraging Gomez’s immense popularity on platforms such as TikTok.

📷: Rare Beauty

2023, July 19
6 pm, London time

TURKEY AND UAE SIGN $50.7 BILLION AGREEMENT

The Presidency of Communication announced that a $50.7 billion agreement has been signed between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to the statement from the Presidency of Communication, during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit, 13 documents were signed and accepted between Turkey and the UAE in various fields.

As part of this framework, the two sides reached an agreement to establish a "High-Level Strategic Council" to be chaired by the Presidents of Turkey and the UAE, as stated in the released announcement. The said Joint Declaration elevates the relations between Turkey and the UAE to a strategic partnership level.

The announcement stated that the agreement includes deepening existing cooperation with the UAE in areas such as energy, transportation, infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, food, tourism, real estate, construction, defense industry, artificial intelligence, and advanced technologies. "The total value of the agreements signed in these areas is $50.7 billion," the announcement read.

📷 Reuters

2023, July 16
1 pm, London time

Klimt's Lady with a Fan: The painting that sold for £85.3m

Left on Gustav Klimt's easel when the artist died in 1918, Lady with a Fan is the most expensive painting auctioned in Europe, selling for £85.3m – but what makes it a masterpiece?

The Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt is best-known for the immortalising opulence of such milestones of modern art as his gold-leaf-encrusted canvases The Kiss, 1907-8, and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907. But it is a rather less famous work – one that was still sitting on the artist's easel when Klimt died from pneumonia as a result of the flu in February 1918, a month after suffering a devastating stroke that had left him partially paralysed and unable to paint – that has become the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction in Europe, selling for £85.3m ($108.4m).

📷 Reuters

2023, July 15
5.35 pm, London time

7 companies with the largest market cap in the world.

Companies traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange are included in the list. Market cap refers to the total value of a company's outstanding shares.

Figures are trillion USD.

2023, July 13
9 pm, London time

Threads hits 100 million users days after launch.

Meta’s answer to Twitter has rocketed to 100 million users in less than a week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Monday.

“Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend,” Zuckerberg said in a post. “That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!”

The Threads app, a spinoff from Instagram that uses people’s accounts for that service, got off to a scorching start on Wednesday and racked up 70 million users within two days, going “way beyond our expectations,” according to Zuckerberg.

📷: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images